News & Alerts

Update: This petition is now closed. Thank you to all our NEAVS supporters who submitted comments to NIH. The comment period has closed. Read NEAVS' comments to the Working Group here. In June 2013, NIH accepted all but one of the CoC's recommendations. The NIH seeks public input on its recent Council of Councils (CoC) recommendations regarding the fate of federally owned chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories. In January, the CoC…

In this issue ... U.S. military and training using animals New cruelty-free cosmetics laws Animals Asia Vietnam bears saved from eviction The last 1,000 chimpanzees in research ... and more! U.S. military asked to phase out training using animalsPresident Obama has signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which requires the Defense Department to initiate a strategy and timeline for transitioning to human-based training methods instead of using animals in military…

The war between animal activists and the Pentagon has raged for decades. You could say there’s been a fair amount of collateral damage: thousands of goats and pigs have been mutilated, though the military argues the animals have not died in vain. So it’s no surprise the animal rights camp is salivating over the blow it’s about to inflict on the enemy. This week, by order of Congress, the Pentagon…

To view the original article, click here. "Yet again, we see that decades of research, and millions of animals' lives and taxpayer dollars, have been cruelly wasted. How much more evidence do we need before action is taken to move away from using animals, toward demonstrably superior and more humane alternatives? We know animals don't predict human drug efficacy and toxicity: it's now known that 94 percent of drugs that…

NEAVS responds to New York Times’ “The Cosmetic Wars”Mark Bittman’s “The Cosmetic Wars” (02/06/13) justifies animal testing by asking if it is worse than the suffering caused by the “industrial livestock system,” unaware two wrongs don’t make either less wrong. Noting formaldehyde is carcinogenic means it should be banned in cosmetics (and in classroom specimens replaceable with computers), not that it be further tested. In advocating for human protection, he…

For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a result, years and billions of dollars have been wasted following false leads, they say. The study’s findings do not mean that mice are useless models for all human diseases.…

To learn more about the new chimpanzees, visit Chimp Haven's website. To see more photos of the first 16 to arrive from New Iberia Research Center – Julius, Phyllis, Sandy, Jessica, Debbie, Linda, Kathy, Margaret, Daisy, Megan, Candy, Jimmy, Becky, Mackensie, Dea, and Quilla – visit Chimp Haven's Flicker page. The first chimpanzees from a south Louisiana lab have arrived at the national sanctuary for retired federal research chimps, with a…

National Institutes of Health to retire 450 research animals to national sanctuaries, end half of ongoing experiments, report suggests The U.S. National Institutes of Health has been advised to significantly curtail research involving chimpanzees by retiring most of the 450 animals it funds or supports, leaving only a few dozen for research. The retired animals would go to sanctuaries. The recommendation comes in a report by a council of external…

Yesterday, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-appointed Council of Councils (CoC) Working Group on Chimpanzees in Research announced findings from its NIH-directed study. NIH requested that it develop a plan to implement the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) guiding principles and criteria for chimpanzee research, analyze the current use of chimpanzees in research, assess the placement and size of chimpanzee populations, and review potential future use. The announcement is a third…